THE LOUD-SOUNDING TRUMPET

[...continued from previous page...] a German Mile A historical unit of distance, roughly equal to 7.5 kilometers or 4.6 English miles., and above all Winds and Motions of the Air) he discharged a Pistol, which made at first no greater noise, than if he had snapped a stick in sunder; till after some small space of time, being dilated, it waxed greater and stronger, and filled the Woods and Dales beneath. But descending through the annual Snows, towards the lower part of the Mountain, he discharged a second time, and the noise was so horrible, that it exceeded the Report of the greatest Cannon; insomuch that he feared lest the whole Mountain would have fallen with him. This noise lasted about half of an hour, till it had been multiplied and reverberated from the most abstruse Caverns of the Mountain, etc. as is better expressed in the Author's own words, Varenius's? General Geography, Book 1, chapter 41. "I discharged a pistol at that summit, which at first produced no greater a sound than if I had broken a little stick or staff; but after an interval of time, a long-drawn-out roar increased in strength, etc." original Latin: "Explosi in ea summitate sclopetum, quod non majorem sonitum primo prae se tulit, quam si ligillum vel bacillum confregissem, post intervallum autem temporis murmur prolixum invaluit, &c."

So that from this Experiment of Varenius Bernhardus Varenius (1622–1650) was a famous German geographer whose work was highly regarded by Isaac Newton., we are to conclude with him, That the percussion of the Air made by the first discharging of his Pistol on the utmost top and sharpest point of the Mountain, being dilated by a spherical Undulation The way sound spreads outward in a growing sphere, like ripples in a pond., and meeting with no Objects to reundulate it to bounce the waves back, was at the first scarcely heard by him who discharged it, whereas the second Report, being nearer to the Caverns and Woods beneath, were suddenly and prodigiously multiplied and reverberated.

VIII.

But in the last place, as to the demonstrative part of this Loud-Sounding Trumpet, together with the exact Figure and Dimensions of it, That is to say,

"What is that Straight-lined, Curved, or mixed
"Figure? And what are its exact Dimensions?
"And what the Sphere of its Activity? That
"best and most magnifies the Human Voice in
"Syllables, Words, and Sentences?

is a new Problem, which I humbly propose to the learned Philosophers and Critics of this our Age, as a thing that merits their Studies and Contemplations, hoping that some one or other of them, either at his own, or his Prince's charge, may happily find a way how it may be clearly solved and demonstrated, whereby the Invention may come to be of greater use and benefit to Mankind, than from this first Adventure of mine could reasonably be expected.

original Latin: "Et erit mihi magnus Apollo." This is a classical reference to Virgil; Morland is saying that whoever solves this mathematical riddle will be honored as a god of wisdom.

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